CLARIFICATION: Good News for NY Workers’ Compensation Claimants and Physicians

There was an inaccurate statement in my blog post yesterday “Good News for NY Workers’ Compensation Claimants and Physicians.” In my rush to get that information out, I didn’t read the Board’s release as closely as I should have and I apologize for that. I got an email this afternoon from Joseph Cavalcante, Assistant Director of Public Information for the NYS Workers’ Compensation Board, informing me about my error. I thank Mr. Cavalcante for reading and letting me know about the inaccuracy.

My statement should be corrected to read “as a measure to deal with that shortage, Mr. Beloten temporarily rescinded the mandate that AUTHORIZED providers IN THE PROVIDER TEMPORARY SHORTAGE AREA file a C-4 form in order to be paid for seeing claimants. With regard to the rest of New York, authorized providers may file the new or older versions of the C-4. Doctors outside provider temporary shortage area are not authorized to submit the CMS-1500 as a result of this subject number.”

In short, only providers in the temporary shortage area are relieved of having to file C-4 forms. However, the good news for any provider statewide is that they have the option of filing the older and easier C-4 form and still have their bills enforced by the Workers’ Compensation Board.

Being in a rush is a pitfall of having a busy practice area such as Workers’ Compensation, but I’m not going to make any excuses and I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.